


mission accomplished

by Ryah_Ignis



Series: Season 14 Codas [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 14x04 Coda, Gen, halloween party, yes shh I know it's november 2nd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-16 18:16:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16500320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryah_Ignis/pseuds/Ryah_Ignis
Summary: "When they open the door, the bunker is teeming with more life than he’s ever seen.Well, that, and more discount Halloween decorations than the nearest Walmart over in Smith Center.  Standing in the middle of it all, Mom beams.Later, Dean will blame Michael’s influence for the tears in his eyes."Mary wants to put a smile on Dean's face.  What better way to do it than a Halloween party?  14x04 coda featuring Bobby, the Wayward Daughters, and a very happy Dean Winchester.





	mission accomplished

“I just don’t know how to help him,” Mary says.

She’s chopping peppers in a way that tells Bobby that she has never actually used a knife for something other than stabbing.  There’s a reason he has her on vegetable duty. The last few times they’ve made dinner together, she’s somehow managed to ruin even the most basic tasks.

Today, it’s gumbo.  His wife’s recipe. Or the little of it that he can remember, anyway.  It probably won’t taste like the real thing.

“Dean?” he asks.

There are plenty of other people she could be talking about—this bunker is chock-full of people who need all the help they can get—but it doesn’t take a genius or a shrink to figure out that everything is not well with the Winchester family.  

Even with just Sam around, Bobby got the impression that he sees her as more of a kid sister than a mother.  Which, sure, she’s younger than them both—something that Bobby tries to keep off his mind whenever he can while he reminds himself about her birth  _ year _ —but she’s still their mom.  It has to be pretty damn confusing on her end.

Throw in a man who’s just been possessed by an archangel?  Things just get weirder.

“Yeah,” Mary says, her shoulders slumping.

The stem of the pepper she’s working on goes flying with a particularly vicious cut.  Bobby carefully pulls the chopping board away from her.

“He’s been through a lot.  These things take time.”

Hell, they all have.  It’s like Mary has forgotten her own archangel-related trauma.  It’s not every day you get locked up and tortured by one for six months.

“I know.  I just want to help him.”

When he glances over at her, her eyes are watering.  And Bobby’s pretty sure it isn’t from the peppers. Damn it.

“Look, Mary.” He walks over and stands next to her so they’re both standing with their back to the island, looking out at the door to the rest of the bunker. “You’re doing all you can.”

Mary shakes her head. “It was all so much easier when he was upset because the cartoon he wanted to watch wasn’t on.” 

Her gaze suddenly seems very far away.  Bobby falls silent. No point trying to drag her back from wherever her mind has wandered.  Instead, he waits for her to drift back.

“He used to love Halloween.  When he was a kid, he just adored it.” She wipes her peppery hands on the towel Bobby hands her. “It drove me crazy.  Halloween always made me think of my parents. Of hunting and all the stuff I knew really went bump in the night. But I went along with it because it made him happy.”

She sniffs a little.  Bobby pretends not to notice.  They do a lot of that.

“His dad, too.  I dressed him up as David Bowie when he was a baby.  One year, we were Han and Leia and we dressed Dean up as Yoda.  ”

Bobby can’t help but crack a smile at that.  It’s hard imagining the Mary Campbell he had known dressed up as Princess Leia, but he likes the reminder that this Mary got a chance at normal, however brief.

“It’s still Halloween,” Bobby points out. “You’ve got like twelve hours left.”

Mary glances at him, as if she can’t quite work out what he’s suggesting.  It takes all that Bobby has not to roll his eyes.

“Give him Halloween.  Like it was when he was a kid.  It won’t magically fix all his problems, but—”

Mary’s eyes light up.  She leans over and plants a kiss on Bobby’s cheek.  Before he really processes, she’s off. Bobby slowly reaches up and puts his hand where she’d touched him, staring after her.

He is in  _ way  _ to deep.

* * *

“This is dumb.”

Claire drags the lipstick in a jagged line on Alex’s face.  The other girl eyes her reflection in the passenger side mirror of Jody’s truck.  She nods in satisfaction at the sight of her fake fangs.

She makes a creepy looking vampire.  Why she would want to dress up as one?  Sometimes, Claire really doesn’t get Alex.

“Perfect,” she says.  Then, “Lighten up, Claire.  For God’s sake.”

With that, she flounces after Jody towards the bunker, towing Patience along with her.  Claire makes a face at her retreating back, but it doesn’t make her feel any better.

They should be looking for Kaia’s killer.  Not dropping everything in the middle of the day to go to a dumb Halloween party.

Still, the prospect of getting to pick Sam’s brain about the best tracking techniques for someone from an alternate reality sure beats standing around the truck.  So instead of moping outside for longer, Claire readjusts her leather jacket on her shoulders and walks toward the bunker.

It looks like a Dollar General  has thrown up all over the Map Room.  Claire shoves her hands in her pockets and goes to join Jody and the others standing across from Mary.

“Sam told me they should be back around midnight,” Mary is saying to Jody, looking more flustered than any person planning a Halloween party has any right to be. “So we’ve got a little time to kill.”

Alex takes a young man’s offer to bob for apples—Jack, Claire thinks, based on the Snapchats she’s been getting ever since Cas discovered the app—and vanishes.  Claire blows a puff of hair out of her face. It’s gonna be a long night.

Patience digs an elbow into her ribs. “Claire,” she says in a low voice. “Look at Jody.”

Claire follows Patience’s gaze to Jody, who’s white as the sheet that Patience currently has draped around her shoulders for her ghost costume.  Then she follows Jody’s to the man pinning up yet another fake cobweb.

He’s a totally normal looking guy.  Claire mentally puts him in the ‘grumpy grandpa’ category.  The kind of man she can get info out of on a case by appealing to the good old days.  He’s wearing a baseball cap and a plaid shirt and she totally doesn’t know what the deal is.

Mary seems to notice, too.

“Oh, Sam and Dean told me you knew him.  Bobby, come here.”

Jody makes her mouth into something that could be called a smile if Claire were feeling generous.  Which she definitely isn’t.

Bobby hops down off the ladder and walks over, brushing off his hand on his shirt before offering it to Jody.

“Bobby—”

“—Singer,” Jody finishes. “I know.  I mean, I knew. The other you. This is confusing.”

Bobby shakes his head. “You’re telling me.  This world’s got its fair share of crazy, too.  I mean, you elected  _ that guy _ ?”

Patience opened her mouth, probably to launch into a speech involving at least six terms from her AP US Government class.  Claire tugs on her sleeve, and she falls silent before she even has a chance to get started.

“It’s not paradise,” Jody agrees, “but it’s home.”

Bobby must sense some awkwardness, because he tips his hat as he quite literally backs out of the conversation. “Well.  It was nice meeting you. Again, I’m told.”

“Right.  Yeah. You too.”

Her voice sounds clipped.  Claire makes a mental note to corner her later and ask who, exactly, the other Bobby Singer was.

* * *

 

Going home doesn’t really feel like going home.

And yeah, sure, Dean probably should be happy to give all of those refugees a home.  They’ve been through hell, after all, and Sam has organized them into a pretty effective hunting force.  

But Dean gets the impression that they all see the bunker as a way station.  A halfway point between the weirdness of now and the rest of their lives. The problem is that the bunker  _ is  _ the rest of his life.  It feels like home.

Or, at least, it did until a squadron moved in.

When they open the door, the bunker is teeming with more life than he’s ever seen.

Well, that, and more discount Halloween decorations than the nearest Walmart over in Smith Center.  Standing in the middle of it all, Mom beams.

Later, Dean will blame Michael’s influence for the tears in his eyes.

“I thought you needed something to lift your spirits,” she says once he’s down the steps.

She doesn’t get another word out before he crushes her in a hug.  She squeezes back, just as tight. It’s moments like this that Dean can’t believe his luck.

“Sure you don’t want me to dress up like Yoda?” he asks.

Mom bites her lip. “You remember?”

He could tell her that of course he remembers.  That it was the last Halloween he really loved. That the fire two days later had sucked the life out of all the others.  But instead, he smiles.

“Course I do.”

He walks into the crowd of his family with a smile.  He’s home again.

* * *

Behind him, Mary and Sam share a quick fist bump.  Mission accomplished.

 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you for reading! I love hearing all of your lovely feedback every week :D
> 
> Also hey, Americans, go vote on Tuesday!


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